Students 'holding' the moment: learning mathematics in an inquiry mathematics classroom

Teachers of inquiry mathematics face many challenges as understandings of how children learn in this environment are still developing. Children learn as they hold onto the moment of not knowing what to do. This paper operationalises learning for a small group of Year Three students exploring the usefulness of maps. As part of a PhD study using Design Research, the teacher-as-researcher identified perturbations generated by the students in her class and applied an operational definition of learning to track student development of mathematical knowledge.